IP6(4) NetBSD Kernel Interfaces Manual IP6(4)
NAMEip6 -- Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) network layer
SYNOPSIS#include <sys/socket.h>#include <netinet/in.h>intsocket(AF_INET6, SOCK_RAW, proto);
DESCRIPTION
The IPv6 network layer is used by the IPv6 protocol family for transport-
ing data. IPv6 packets contain an IPv6 header that is not provided as
part of the payload contents when passed to an application. IPv6 header
options affect the behavior of this protocol and may be used by high-
level protocols (such as the tcp(4) and udp(4) protocols) as well as
directly by ``raw sockets'', which process IPv6 messages at a lower-level
and may be useful for developing new protocols and special-purpose appli-
cations.
Header
All IPv6 packets begin with an IPv6 header. When data received by the
kernel are passed to the application, this header is not included in
buffer, even when raw sockets are being used. Likewise, when data are
sent to the kernel for transmit from the application, the buffer is not
examined for an IPv6 header: the kernel always constructs the header. To
directly access IPv6 headers from received packets and specify them as
part of the buffer passed to the kernel, link-level access (bpf(4), for
example) must be used instead.
The header has the following definition:
struct ip6_hdr {
union {
struct ip6_hdrctl {
uint32_t ip6_un1_flow; /* 20 bits of flow ID */
uint16_t ip6_un1_plen; /* payload length */
uint8_t ip6_un1_nxt; /* next header */
uint8_t ip6_un1_hlim; /* hop limit */
} ip6_un1;
uint8_t ip6_un2_vfc; /* version and class */
} ip6_ctlun;
struct in6_addr ip6_src; /* source address */
struct in6_addr ip6_dst; /* destination address */
} __packed;
#define ip6_vfc ip6_ctlun.ip6_un2_vfc
#define ip6_flow ip6_ctlun.ip6_un1.ip6_un1_flow
#define ip6_plen ip6_ctlun.ip6_un1.ip6_un1_plen
#define ip6_nxt ip6_ctlun.ip6_un1.ip6_un1_nxt
#define ip6_hlim ip6_ctlun.ip6_un1.ip6_un1_hlim
#define ip6_hops ip6_ctlun.ip6_un1.ip6_un1_hlim
All fields are in network-byte order. Any options specified (see Options
below) must also be specified in network-byte order.
ip6_flow specifies the flow ID. ip6_plen specifies the payload length.
ip6_nxt specifies the type of the next header. ip6_hlim specifies the
hop limit.
The top 4 bits of ip6_vfc specify the class and the bottom 4 bits specify
the version.
ip6_src and ip6_dst specify the source and destination addresses.
The IPv6 header may be followed by any number of extension headers that
start with the following generic definition:
struct ip6_ext {
uint8_t ip6e_nxt;
uint8_t ip6e_len;
} __packed;
Options
IPv6 allows header options on packets to manipulate the behavior of the
protocol. These options and other control requests are accessed with the
getsockopt(2) and setsockopt(2) system calls at level IPPROTO_IPV6 and by
using ancillary data in recvmsg(2) and sendmsg(2). They can be used to
access most of the fields in the IPv6 header and extension headers.
The following socket options are supported:
IPV6_UNICAST_HOPS int *
Get or set the default hop limit header field for outgoing uni-
cast datagrams sent on this socket. A value of -1 resets to the
default value.
IPV6_MULTICAST_IF u_int *
Get or set the interface from which multicast packets will be
sent. For hosts with multiple interfaces, each multicast trans-
mission is sent from the primary network interface. The inter-
face is specified as its index as provided by if_nametoindex(3).
A value of zero specifies the default interface.
IPV6_MULTICAST_HOPS int *
Get or set the default hop limit header field for outgoing multi-
cast datagrams sent on this socket. This option controls the
scope of multicast datagram transmissions.
Datagrams with a hop limit of 1 are not forwarded beyond the
local network. Multicast datagrams with a hop limit of zero will
not be transmitted on any network but may be delivered locally if
the sending host belongs to the destination group and if multi-
cast loopback (see below) has not been disabled on the sending
socket. Multicast datagrams with a hop limit greater than 1 may
be forwarded to the other networks if a multicast router (such as
mrouted(8)) is attached to the local network.
IPV6_MULTICAST_LOOP u_int *
Get or set the status of whether multicast datagrams will be
looped back for local delivery when a multicast datagram is sent
to a group to which the sending host belongs.
This option improves performance for applications that may have
no more than one instance on a single host (such as a router dae-
mon) by eliminating the overhead of receiving their own transmis-
sions. It should generally not be used by applications for which
there may be more than one instance on a single host (such as a
conferencing program) or for which the sender does not belong to
the destination group (such as a time-querying program).
A multicast datagram sent with an initial hop limit greater than
1 may be delivered to the sending host on a different interface
from that on which it was sent if the host belongs to the desti-
nation group on that other interface. The multicast loopback
control option has no effect on such delivery.
IPV6_JOIN_GROUP struct ipv6_mreq *
Join a multicast group. A host must become a member of a multi-
cast group before it can receive datagrams sent to the group.
struct ipv6_mreq {
struct in6_addr ipv6mr_multiaddr;
unsigned int ipv6mr_interface;
};
ipv6mr_interface may be set to zeroes to choose the default mul-
ticast interface or to the index of a particular multicast-capa-
ble interface if the host is multihomed. Membership is associ-
ated with a single interface; programs running on multihomed
hosts may need to join the same group on more than one interface.
If the multicast address is unspecified (i.e., all zeroes), mes-
sages from all multicast addresses will be accepted by this
group. Note that setting to this value requires superuser privi-
leges.
IPV6_LEAVE_GROUP struct ipv6_mreq *
Drop membership from the associated multicast group. Memberships
are automatically dropped when the socket is closed or when the
process exits.
IPV6_IPSEC_POLICY struct sadb_x_policy *
Get or set IPSec policy for sockets. For example,
const char *policy = "in ipsec ah/transport//require";
char *buf = ipsec_set_policy(policy, strlen(policy));
setsockopt(s, IPPROTO_IPV6, IPV6_IPSEC_POLICY, buf, ipsec_get_policylen(buf));
IPV6_PORTRANGE int *
Get or set the allocation policy of ephemeral ports for when the
kernel automatically binds a local address to this socket. The
following values are available:
IPV6_PORTRANGE_DEFAULT Use the regular range of non-reserved
ports (varies, see sysctl(8)).
IPV6_PORTRANGE_HIGH Use a high range (varies, see sysctl(8)).
IPV6_PORTRANGE_LOW Use a low, reserved range (600-1023).
IPV6_PKTINFO int *
Get or set whether additional information about subsequent pack-
ets will be provided as ancillary data along with the payload in
subsequent recvmsg(2) calls. The information is stored in the
following structure in the ancillary data returned:
struct in6_pktinfo {
struct in6_addr ipi6_addr; /* src/dst IPv6 address */
unsigned int ipi6_ifindex; /* send/recv if index */
};
IPV6_HOPLIMIT int *
Get or set whether the hop limit header field from subsequent
packets will be provided as ancillary data along with the payload
in subsequent recvmsg(2) calls. The value is stored as an int in
the ancillary data returned.
IPV6_HOPOPTS int *
Get or set whether the hop-by-hop options from subsequent packets
will be provided as ancillary data along with the payload in sub-
sequent recvmsg(2) calls. The option is stored in the following
structure in the ancillary data returned:
struct ip6_hbh {
uint8_t ip6h_nxt; /* next header */
uint8_t ip6h_len; /* length in units of 8 octets */
/* followed by options */
} __packed;
The inet6_option_space() routine and family of routines may be
used to manipulate this data.
This option requires superuser privileges.
IPV6_DSTOPTS int *
Get or set whether the destination options from subsequent pack-
ets will be provided as ancillary data along with the payload in
subsequent recvmsg(2) calls. The option is stored in the follow-
ing structure in the ancillary data returned:
struct ip6_dest {
uint8_t ip6d_nxt; /* next header */
uint8_t ip6d_len; /* length in units of 8 octets */
/* followed by options */
} __packed;
The inet6_option_space() routine and family of routines may be
used to manipulate this data.
This option requires superuser privileges.
IPV6_RTHDR int *
Get or set whether the routing header from subsequent packets
will be provided as ancillary data along with the payload in sub-
sequent recvmsg(2) calls. The header is stored in the following
structure in the ancillary data returned:
struct ip6_rthdr {
uint8_t ip6r_nxt; /* next header */
uint8_t ip6r_len; /* length in units of 8 octets */
uint8_t ip6r_type; /* routing type */
uint8_t ip6r_segleft; /* segments left */
/* followed by routing-type-specific data */
} __packed;
The inet6_option_space() routine and family of routines may be
used to manipulate this data.
This option requires superuser privileges.
IPV6_PKTOPTIONS struct cmsghdr *
Get or set all header options and extension headers at one time
on the last packet sent or received on the socket. All options
must fit within the size of an mbuf (see mbuf(9)). Options are
specified as a series of cmsghdr structures followed by corre-
sponding values. cmsg_level is set to IPPROTO_IPV6, cmsg_type to
one of the other values in this list, and trailing data to the
option value. When setting options, if the length optlen to
setsockopt(2) is zero, all header options will be reset to their
default values. Otherwise, the length should specify the size
the series of control messages consumes.
Instead of using sendmsg(2) to specify option values, the ancil-
lary data used in these calls that correspond to the desired
header options may be directly specified as the control message
in the series of control messages provided as the argument to
setsockopt(2).
IPV6_CHECKSUM int *
Get or set the byte offset into a packet where the 16-bit check-
sum is located. When set, this byte offset is where incoming
packets will be expected to have checksums of their data stored
and where outgoing packets will have checksums of their data com-
puted and stored by the kernel. A value of -1 specifies that no
checksums will be checked on incoming packets and that no check-
sums will be computed or stored on outgoing packets. The offset
of the checksum for ICMPv6 sockets cannot be relocated or turned
off.
IPV6_V6ONLY int *
Get or set whether only IPv6 connections can be made to this
socket. For wildcard sockets, this can restrict connections to
IPv6 only.
IPV6_FAITH int *
Get or set the status of whether faith(4) connections can be made
to this socket.
IPV6_USE_MIN_MTU int *
Get or set whether the minimal IPv6 maximum transmission unit
(MTU) size will be used to avoid fragmentation from occurring for
subsequent outgoing datagrams.
IPV6_AUTH_LEVEL int *
Get or set the ipsec(4) authentication level.
IPV6_ESP_TRANS_LEVEL int *
Get or set the ESP transport level.
IPV6_ESP_NETWORK_LEVEL int *
Get or set the ESP encapsulation level.
IPV6_IPCOMP_LEVEL int *
Get or set the ipcomp(4) level.
The IPV6_PKTINFO, IPV6_HOPLIMIT, IPV6_HOPOPTS, IPV6_DSTOPTS, and
IPV6_RTHDR options will return ancillary data along with payload contents
in subsequent recvmsg(2) calls with cmsg_level set to IPPROTO_IPV6 and
cmsg_type set to respective option name value (e.g., IPV6_HOPTLIMIT).
These options may also be used directly as ancillary cmsg_type values in
sendmsg(2) to set options on the packet being transmitted by the call.
The cmsg_level value must be IPPROTO_IPV6. For these options, the ancil-
lary data object value format is the same as the value returned as
explained for each when received with recvmsg(2).
Note that using sendmsg(2) to specify options on particular packets works
only on UDP and raw sockets. To manipulate header options for packets on
TCP sockets, only the socket options may be used.
In some cases, there are multiple APIs defined for manipulating an IPv6
header field. A good example is the outgoing interface for multicast
datagrams, which can be set by the IPV6_MULTICAST_IF socket option,
through the IPV6_PKTINFO option, and through the sin6_scope_id field of
the socket address passed to the sendto(2) system call.
Resolving these conflicts is implementation dependent. This implementa-
tion determines the value in the following way: options specified by
using ancillary data (i.e., sendmsg(2)) are considered first, options
specified by using IPV6_PKTOPTIONS to set ``sticky'' options are consid-
ered second, options specified by using the individual, basic, and direct
socket options (e.g., IPV6_UNICAST_HOPS) are considered third, and
options specified in the socket address supplied to sendto(2) are the
last choice.
Multicasting
IPv6 multicasting is supported only on AF_INET6 sockets of type
SOCK_DGRAM and SOCK_RAW, and only on networks where the interface driver
supports multicasting. Socket options (see above) that manipulate mem-
bership of multicast groups and other multicast options include
IPV6_MULTICAST_IF, IPV6_MULTICAST_HOPS, IPV6_MULTICAST_LOOP,
IPV6_LEAVE_GROUP, and IPV6_JOIN_GROUP.
Raw Sockets
Raw IPv6 sockets are connectionless and are normally used with the
sendto(2) and recvfrom(2) calls, although the connect(2) call may be used
to fix the destination address for future outgoing packets so that
send(2) may instead be used and the bind(2) call may be used to fix the
source address for future outgoing packets instead of having the kernel
choose a source address.
By using connect(2) or bind(2), raw socket input is constrained to only
packets with their source address matching the socket destination address
if connect(2) was used and to packets with their destination address
matching the socket source address if bind(2) was used.
If the proto argument to socket(2) is zero, the default protocol
(IPPROTO_RAW) is used for outgoing packets. For incoming packets, proto-
cols recognized by kernel are not passed to the application socket (e.g.,
tcp(4) and udp(4)) except for some ICMPv6 messages. The ICMPv6 messages
not passed to raw sockets include echo, timestamp, and address mask
requests. If proto is non-zero, only packets with this protocol will be
passed to the socket.
IPv6 fragments are also not passed to application sockets until they have
been reassembled. If reception of all packets is desired, link-level
access (such as bpf(4)) must be used instead.
Outgoing packets automatically have an IPv6 header prepended to them
(based on the destination address and the protocol number the socket was
created with). Incoming packets are received by an application without
the IPv6 header or any extension headers.
Outgoing packets will be fragmented automatically by the kernel if they
are too large. Incoming packets will be reassembled before being sent to
the raw socket, so packet fragments or fragment headers will never be
seen on a raw socket.
EXAMPLES
The following determines the hop limit on the next packet received:
struct iovec iov[2];
u_char buf[BUFSIZ];
struct cmsghdr *cm;
struct msghdr m;
int found, optval;
u_char data[2048];
/* Create socket. */
(void)memset(&m, 0, sizeof(m));
(void)memset(&iov, 0, sizeof(iov));
iov[0].iov_base = data; /* buffer for packet payload */
iov[0].iov_len = sizeof(data); /* expected packet length */
m.msg_name = &from; /* sockaddr_in6 of peer */
m.msg_namelen = sizeof(from);
m.msg_iov = iov;
m.msg_iovlen = 1;
m.msg_control = buf; /* buffer for control messages */
m.msg_controllen = sizeof(buf);
/*
* Enable the hop limit value from received packets to be
* returned along with the payload.
*/
optval = 1;
if (setsockopt(s, IPPROTO_IPV6, IPV6_HOPLIMIT, &optval,
sizeof(optval)) == -1)
err(1, "setsockopt");
found = 0;
while (!found) {
if (recvmsg(s, &m, 0) == -1)
err(1, "recvmsg");
for (cm = CMSG_FIRSTHDR(&m); cm != NULL;
cm = CMSG_NXTHDR(&m, cm)) {
if (cm->cmsg_level == IPPROTO_IPV6 &&
cm->cmsg_type == IPV6_HOPLIMIT &&
cm->cmsg_len == CMSG_LEN(sizeof(int))) {
found = 1;
(void)printf("hop limit: %d\n",
*(int *)CMSG_DATA(cm));
break;
}
}
}
DIAGNOSTICS
A socket operation may fail with one of the following errors returned:
[EISCONN] when trying to establish a connection on a socket which
already has one or when trying to send a datagram with
the destination address specified and the socket is
already connected.
[ENOTCONN] when trying to send a datagram, but no destination
address is specified, and the socket hasn't been con-
nected.
[ENOBUFS] when the system runs out of memory for an internal data
structure.
[EADDRNOTAVAIL] when an attempt is made to create a socket with a net-
work address for which no network interface exists.
[EACCES] when an attempt is made to create a raw IPv6 socket by a
non-privileged process.
The following errors specific to IPv6 may occur when setting or getting
header options:
[EINVAL] An unknown socket option name was given.
[EINVAL] An ancillary data object was improperly formed.
SEE ALSOgetsockopt(2), recv(2), send(2), setsockopt(2), socket(2),
if_nametoindex(3), bpf(4), icmp6(4), inet6(4), netintro(4), tcp(4),
udp(4)
W. Stevens and M. Thomas, Advanced Sockets API for IPv6, RFC 2292,
February 1998.
S. Deering and R. Hinden, Internet Protocol, Version 6 (IPv6)Specification, RFC 2460, December 1998.
R. Gilligan, S. Thomson, J. Bound, and W. Stevens, Basic Socket InterfaceExtensions for IPv6, RFC 2553, March 1999.
W. Stevens, B. Fenner, and A. Rudoff, UNIX Network Programming, thirdedition.
STANDARDS
Most of the socket options are defined in RFC 2292 or RFC 2553. The
IPV6_V6ONLY socket option is defined in RFC 3542. The IPV6_PORTRANGE
socket option and the conflict resolution rule are not defined in the
RFCs and should be considered implementation dependent.
NetBSD 5.1 December 5, 2006 NetBSD 5.1

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